W1zzard
01-24-2007, 07:21 PM
[page=Introduction & Specifications]
Introduction
A few months ago ATI introduced their new Radeon X1950 Pro series of video cards. These cards are based on the new RV570 core which is made in a 80nm process. Usually all higher end cards are made to specifications of ATI and the boards partners have to sell that product, they are not allowed to make any changes to the PCB, clock speeds or memory configuration. Recently ATI has lifted that limitation from the X1950 Pro series, which is why we are seeing a number of different products from manufacturers.
GeCube has focused on cooling and overclocking with their FZ Cool Champion Edition. A small TEC (http://reference.techpowerup.com/TEC) (Thermo-Electric-Cooling) device reduces the GPU temperature more than it would be possible with a traditional cooling fan.
A TEC is basically at heat pump. Heat is moved from one side of the metal surface to the other side, it does not magically destroy heat. This whole process consumes power so the hot side is hotter than what was moved from the cold side.
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th></th>
<td>X1900 XT 512M</td>
<td><strong>X1950 Pro </strong></td>
<td>X1900 XTX</td>
<td>X1950 XTX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Pixel Shaders</th>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right"><strong>36</strong></td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Vertex Pipes</th>
<td align="right">8</td>
<td align="right"><strong>8</strong></td>
<td align="right">8</td>
<td align="right">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ROPs</th>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right"><strong>12</strong></td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right"><strong>512</strong></td>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">512</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">625 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>580 MHz </strong></td>
<td align="right">650 MHz</td>
<td align="right">650 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">725 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>690 MHz </strong></td>
<td align="right">775 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Price</th>
<td align="right">$350</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$250</strong></td>
<td align="right">$399</td>
<td align="right">$420</td>
</tr>
</table>
The important numbers here are the shader count and the number of ROPs, which are both lower than on the high-end products.
Complete Specifications
Features
384 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process
Up to 48 pixel shader processors
8 vertex shader processors
Up to 256-bit 8-channel GDDR4 memory interface
Native PCI Express x16 bus interface
Ring Bus Memory Controller
Up to 512-bit internal ring bus for memory reads
Fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs
Hierarchical Z-buffer with Early Z test
Lossless Z Compression (up to 48:1)
Fast Z-Buffer Clear
Optimized for performance at high display resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions
Ultra-Threaded Shader Engine
Support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware
Full speed 128-bit floating point processing for all shader operations
Up to 512 simultaneous pixel threads
Dedicated branch execution units for high performance dynamic branching and flow control
Dedicated texture address units for improved efficiency
3Dc+ texture compression o High quality 4:1 compression for normal maps and two-channel data formats
High quality 2:1 compression for luminance maps and single-channel data formats
Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® 2.0
Advanced Image Quality Features
64-bit floating point HDR rendering supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
32-bit integer HDR (10:10:10:2) format supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
Multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sparse sample patterns, and centroid sampling
New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing feature with Performance and Quality modes
Temporal Anti-Aliasing mode
Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions
2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes
Up to 128-tap texture filtering
Adaptive algorithm with Performance and Quality options
High resolution texture support (up to 4k x 4k)
Avivo™ Video and Display Platform
High performance programmable video processor
Accelerated MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264 decoding and transcoding
DXVA support
De-blocking and noise reduction filtering
Motion compensation, IDCT, DCT and color space conversion
Vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
3:2 pulldown (frame rate conversion)
Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
HDR tone mapping acceleration
Maps any input format to 10 bit per channel output
Flexible display support
Dual integrated dual-link DVI transmitters
DVI 1.0 compliant / HDMI interoperable and HDCP ready*
Dual integrated 10 bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
16 bit per channel floating point HDR and 10 bit per channel DVI output
Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion (10 bits per color)
Complete, independent color controls and video overlays for each display
High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all outputs
Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays
Xilleon™ TV encoder for high quality analog output
YPrPb component output for direct drive of HDTV displays
Spatial/temporal dithering enables 10-bit color quality on 8-bit and 6-bit displays
Fast, glitch-free mode switching
VGA mode support on all outputs
Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions and refresh rates
Compatible with ATI TV/Video encoder products, including Theater 550
CrossFire™
Multi-GPU technology
Four modes of operation:
Alternate Frame Rendering (maximum performance)
Supertiling (optimal load-balancing)
Scissor (compatibility)
Super AA 8x/10x/12x/14x (maximum image quality)
[page=Packaging & Contents]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/package1.jpg)
GeCube put their Champion Edition card into a HUGE box. Look at the box contents image below this paragraph to realize that the cooler pretty much covers the whole card. Now look back at the window in the box, you can see the whole cooler. Obviously this means that the package has a lot of empty space. It seems bigger box means more sales.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/contents.jpg)
Inside the box you will find:
Video Card
Driver CD, Power DVD CD
Component TV adapter, TV out cable
2x DVI Adapter
PCI-E Power Adapter
PCI slot bracket
[page=The Card]
The Card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card2.jpg)
To accommodate the big TEC cooler, GeCube made the X1950 Pro Champion Edition a two-slot card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card4.jpg)
You can see four heat pipes that move the heat from the TEC to the heatsink on top of it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card5.jpg)
The back of the card has only small components. What is more interesting is the mounting mechanism. There are very soft rubber pads between the metal clamp and the card to avoid crushing the core.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/connectors_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/connectors.jpg)
Just like all high-end cards the X1950 Pro Champion Edition comes with two Dual-Link DVI ports. Two DVI-Analog adapters are included in the package if you want to use an old CRT or a budget TFT with the card.
[page=A Closer Look]
A Closer Look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power2.jpg)
The card needs power delivery through one PCI-E power connector, an adapter cable is included. In addition to that the TEC needs power as well through a Molex power adapter. The included adapter cable does not work for both PCI-E and Molex at the same time, so you have to route an extra power cable for the TEC.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/crossfire_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/crossfire.jpg)
The X1950 Pro uses ATI's new internal CrossFire connector. No longer do you need a chunky external dongle cable. A little bridge PCB, just like NVIDIA's SLI lets you connect two card to increase performance or image quality.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler.jpg)
Unlike other high-end cards, GeCube went with an aluminum base instead of copper. This is probably to save weight and cost. A baseplate this big would add quite some weight to the card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler2.jpg)
The red and black wires are going into the TEC element and supply the needed voltage for its operation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler4.jpg)
In my opinion this is quite a mess of cables, there is sure a better way to get the connections done.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/tecpwr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/tecpwr.jpg)
This small area of the PCB contains power supply and management for the TEC element.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/gpu_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/gpu.jpg)
The ATI RV570 GPU has a smaller footprint than the high-end chips. It is made in an 80nm process and contains 330 million transistors with support for Shader Model 3.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/memory.jpg)
As memory Samsung 1.2 ns GDDR3 memory with the model number K4J52324QC-BJ12 is used, which should be good for around 833 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/sensor_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/sensor.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card6.jpg)
Gecube uses this Fintek F75363 (F75363SG) sensor chip which at this time is not supported by ATITool 0.26. A future version will support temperature monitoring and fan control.
The card has semi-dynamic fan speeds. If you look at the second picture above you see two fans, left one with the ATI sticker, and the right one with the Gecube sticker. The Fintek F75363 SG chip can control the "Gecube" fan, the ATI fan is always running at a fixed speed.
[page=Test Setup]
Test System
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="150" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 FX-60 @ 2900 MHz<br />(Toledo, 2x 1024 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Sapphire PC-A9RD580<br />ATI Radeon XPRESS 3200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 1024MB G.Skill F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV CL3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">WD Raptor 360GD 36 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ GameXStream 700W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">NVIDIA: 91.47<br />ATI: Catalyst 6.11</td>
</tr>
</table>
All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting
Three resolutions were tested per benchmark:
1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing, No anisotropic filtering. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing, 8x anisotropic filtering. Common resolution for most gamer flatscreens today. A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1600 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to a wide range of users. Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2048 x 1536, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to any consumer video card. Very good looking driver graphics settings.
[page=Far Cry]
Far Cry
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry.jpg
Far Cry (http://www.farcry-thegame.com) was released in early 2004 by the new development studio Crytek. It quickly became a massive success because it was one of the first titles to take you in a beautiful 3D outdoor world. Far Cry was one of the most demanding games at its time. Even with today's video cards you can still see big differences in frame rates, especially at the higher resolutions.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_2048_1536.gif
[page=FEAR]
FEAR
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear.jpg
The first person shooter F.E.A.R (htttp://www.whatisfear.com), developed by Monolith Game Studios, was released in Fall 2005 and has a great 3D engine that uses a large number of shading and shadow effects to accurately model the game world. In addition to that it features a realistic physics engine that lets you interact with many objects in the game world. The game was voted game of the year by several publications.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_2048_1536.gif
[page=Prey]
Prey
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey.jpg
Prey (http://www.prey.com) is based on a highly modified 3D engine made by id Software. This first person shooter brought a completely new way of gaming to the genre. In many levels you find yourself walking upside down or on the walls. This adds a completely new aspect to the gaming experience in this genre.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_2048_1536.gif
[page=Quake 4]
Quake 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4.jpg
The Quake titles are among the most successful first person games. Developed by id Software, the famous game studio that brought you DOOM, you find yourself in a scifi world that is full of aliens and shocking effects. The main focus of the game is the single player story line. Quake 4 (http://www.quake4game.com) puts you on the home planet of the Strogg. In a number of missions you and your fellow marines will encounter all sorts of enemies, including some really huge aliens.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_2048_1536.gif
[page=X3]
X3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3.jpg
X3 (http://www.egosoft.com) is a space combat/trading simulation game with beautiful graphics. The game world is gigantic and there is always something new to see. Even though the user interface is not that great, the title has found many fans that love to explore the rich content. When you are flying in your spaceship you are sometimes tempted to just stop the action to take a look at the highly detailed ships and planets.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_2048_1536.gif
[page=3DMark03]
3DMark03
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03.jpg
Futuremark Corporation (http://www.futuremark.com) is the number one player in the world of synthetic benchmarking. The 3DMark series is the most popular test suite for video card testing and is used by gamers, overclockers and manufacturers alike to determine how fast their hardware is. Even though it is a few years old, 3DMark03 can easily stress today's video cards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_2048_1536.gif
[page=3DMark05]
3DMark05
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05.jpg
Another benchmark from Futuremark (http://www.futuremark.com) is 3DMark05 which comes with four completely new game tests that make massive use of shaders and lighting effects. 3DMark05 is a great test for modern video card architectures - in some tests you are often close to the 30 fps mark, below which your games will feel sluggish.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_2048_1536.gif
[page=Power consumption]
Power consumption
Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs.
To measure power consumption the whole system's mains power draw was measured. This means that these numbers include CPU, Memory, HDD, Video card and PSU inefficiency.
The load value was obtained by running 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. While the test was running, power consumption was recorded. The highest reading is listed in the following graph.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power.gif
The Gecube X1950 Pro Champion Edition is basically a power hog because of the TEC. However, even with our overclocked FX-60 the total system peak power consumption is below 250W which means that any 400W PSU should be able to run it without problems.
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
The card does not use distinct 2D/3D clocks. It always runs at 574 MHz core and 682 MHz memory.
ATITool does not work on this card (yet), so we used ATITool "Scan for Artifacts" in conjunction with ATI WinClk 5.22 to find the maximum clocks manually. Actually ATITool core clock changes work, but when you try to start Find Max it will try to change the memory clock as well and crash the card...
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/maxclock.gif
In the end the card runs completely stable at 682 MHz Core (19 % overclock) and 816 MHz Memory (20 % overclock). Both overclocks are breathtaking, I haven't seen such overclocking potential on any video card in a stock configuration for quite a while.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The Gecube X1950 Pro FZ Cool Champion Edition costs about $280. This is a $30 premium over a regular X1950 Pro with 512 MB GDDR3.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Huge overclocking potential
Good performance
Unique TEC Cooling
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Loud fan
High power consumption
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.1</th>
<td>The Radeon X1950 Pro series is a great choice for people who do not want to spend too much money at this time, yet they want a card that can run all games at acceptable settings. In our testing we saw that the GeCube X1950 Pro could run everything we threw at it, even at 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF. So it is safe to say that this card will last you far into 2007, until it is more clear what's happening with Vista, DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0.<br />
The TEC FZ Cool cooling of Gecube's card works well, but tends to make the card a bit noisy because it uses two fans. Unfortunately only one fan is temperature controlled, the other fan is running at constant speed. Since there is no overclocking tool that works with the X1950 Pro at this time you are limited to using CCC overclocks or BIOS editing. With CCC you can pretty much max. out the available clock range which makes this a simple thing to overclock if you just want to set a clock and be done with it.<br />
The price premium of $30 over a regular 512 MB X1950 Pro that you pay for the TEC module is justified if you are willing to trade a bit more fan noise for huge overclocking potential.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
A few months ago ATI introduced their new Radeon X1950 Pro series of video cards. These cards are based on the new RV570 core which is made in a 80nm process. Usually all higher end cards are made to specifications of ATI and the boards partners have to sell that product, they are not allowed to make any changes to the PCB, clock speeds or memory configuration. Recently ATI has lifted that limitation from the X1950 Pro series, which is why we are seeing a number of different products from manufacturers.
GeCube has focused on cooling and overclocking with their FZ Cool Champion Edition. A small TEC (http://reference.techpowerup.com/TEC) (Thermo-Electric-Cooling) device reduces the GPU temperature more than it would be possible with a traditional cooling fan.
A TEC is basically at heat pump. Heat is moved from one side of the metal surface to the other side, it does not magically destroy heat. This whole process consumes power so the hot side is hotter than what was moved from the cold side.
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th></th>
<td>X1900 XT 512M</td>
<td><strong>X1950 Pro </strong></td>
<td>X1900 XTX</td>
<td>X1950 XTX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Pixel Shaders</th>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right"><strong>36</strong></td>
<td align="right">48</td>
<td align="right">48</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Vertex Pipes</th>
<td align="right">8</td>
<td align="right"><strong>8</strong></td>
<td align="right">8</td>
<td align="right">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>ROPs</th>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right"><strong>12</strong></td>
<td align="right">16</td>
<td align="right">16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Size</th>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right"><strong>512</strong></td>
<td align="right">512</td>
<td align="right">512</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Core Clock</th>
<td align="right">625 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>580 MHz </strong></td>
<td align="right">650 MHz</td>
<td align="right">650 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Memory Clock</th>
<td align="right">725 MHz</td>
<td align="right"><strong>690 MHz </strong></td>
<td align="right">775 MHz</td>
<td align="right">1000 MHz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Price</th>
<td align="right">$350</td>
<td align="right"><strong>$250</strong></td>
<td align="right">$399</td>
<td align="right">$420</td>
</tr>
</table>
The important numbers here are the shader count and the number of ROPs, which are both lower than on the high-end products.
Complete Specifications
Features
384 million transistors on 90nm fabrication process
Up to 48 pixel shader processors
8 vertex shader processors
Up to 256-bit 8-channel GDDR4 memory interface
Native PCI Express x16 bus interface
Ring Bus Memory Controller
Up to 512-bit internal ring bus for memory reads
Fully associative texture, color, and Z/stencil cache designs
Hierarchical Z-buffer with Early Z test
Lossless Z Compression (up to 48:1)
Fast Z-Buffer Clear
Optimized for performance at high display resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions
Ultra-Threaded Shader Engine
Support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware
Full speed 128-bit floating point processing for all shader operations
Up to 512 simultaneous pixel threads
Dedicated branch execution units for high performance dynamic branching and flow control
Dedicated texture address units for improved efficiency
3Dc+ texture compression o High quality 4:1 compression for normal maps and two-channel data formats
High quality 2:1 compression for luminance maps and single-channel data formats
Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® 2.0
Advanced Image Quality Features
64-bit floating point HDR rendering supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
32-bit integer HDR (10:10:10:2) format supported throughout the pipeline
Includes support for blending and multi-sample anti-aliasing
2x/4x/6x Anti-Aliasing modes
Multi-sample algorithm with gamma correction, programmable sparse sample patterns, and centroid sampling
New Adaptive Anti-Aliasing feature with Performance and Quality modes
Temporal Anti-Aliasing mode
Lossless Color Compression (up to 6:1) at all resolutions, including widescreen HDTV resolutions
2x/4x/8x/16x Anisotropic Filtering modes
Up to 128-tap texture filtering
Adaptive algorithm with Performance and Quality options
High resolution texture support (up to 4k x 4k)
Avivo™ Video and Display Platform
High performance programmable video processor
Accelerated MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264 decoding and transcoding
DXVA support
De-blocking and noise reduction filtering
Motion compensation, IDCT, DCT and color space conversion
Vector adaptive per-pixel de-interlacing
3:2 pulldown (frame rate conversion)
Seamless integration of pixel shaders with video in real time
HDR tone mapping acceleration
Maps any input format to 10 bit per channel output
Flexible display support
Dual integrated dual-link DVI transmitters
DVI 1.0 compliant / HDMI interoperable and HDCP ready*
Dual integrated 10 bit per channel 400 MHz DACs
16 bit per channel floating point HDR and 10 bit per channel DVI output
Programmable piecewise linear gamma correction, color correction, and color space conversion (10 bits per color)
Complete, independent color controls and video overlays for each display
High quality pre- and post-scaling engines, with underscan support for all outputs
Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays
Xilleon™ TV encoder for high quality analog output
YPrPb component output for direct drive of HDTV displays
Spatial/temporal dithering enables 10-bit color quality on 8-bit and 6-bit displays
Fast, glitch-free mode switching
VGA mode support on all outputs
Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions and refresh rates
Compatible with ATI TV/Video encoder products, including Theater 550
CrossFire™
Multi-GPU technology
Four modes of operation:
Alternate Frame Rendering (maximum performance)
Supertiling (optimal load-balancing)
Scissor (compatibility)
Super AA 8x/10x/12x/14x (maximum image quality)
[page=Packaging & Contents]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/package1.jpg)
GeCube put their Champion Edition card into a HUGE box. Look at the box contents image below this paragraph to realize that the cooler pretty much covers the whole card. Now look back at the window in the box, you can see the whole cooler. Obviously this means that the package has a lot of empty space. It seems bigger box means more sales.
Contents
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/contents.jpg)
Inside the box you will find:
Video Card
Driver CD, Power DVD CD
Component TV adapter, TV out cable
2x DVI Adapter
PCI-E Power Adapter
PCI slot bracket
[page=The Card]
The Card
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card2.jpg)
To accommodate the big TEC cooler, GeCube made the X1950 Pro Champion Edition a two-slot card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card4.jpg)
You can see four heat pipes that move the heat from the TEC to the heatsink on top of it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card5.jpg)
The back of the card has only small components. What is more interesting is the mounting mechanism. There are very soft rubber pads between the metal clamp and the card to avoid crushing the core.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/connectors_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/connectors.jpg)
Just like all high-end cards the X1950 Pro Champion Edition comes with two Dual-Link DVI ports. Two DVI-Analog adapters are included in the package if you want to use an old CRT or a budget TFT with the card.
[page=A Closer Look]
A Closer Look
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power2.jpg)
The card needs power delivery through one PCI-E power connector, an adapter cable is included. In addition to that the TEC needs power as well through a Molex power adapter. The included adapter cable does not work for both PCI-E and Molex at the same time, so you have to route an extra power cable for the TEC.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/crossfire_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/crossfire.jpg)
The X1950 Pro uses ATI's new internal CrossFire connector. No longer do you need a chunky external dongle cable. A little bridge PCB, just like NVIDIA's SLI lets you connect two card to increase performance or image quality.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler.jpg)
Unlike other high-end cards, GeCube went with an aluminum base instead of copper. This is probably to save weight and cost. A baseplate this big would add quite some weight to the card.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler2.jpg)
The red and black wires are going into the TEC element and supply the needed voltage for its operation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/cooler4.jpg)
In my opinion this is quite a mess of cables, there is sure a better way to get the connections done.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/tecpwr_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/tecpwr.jpg)
This small area of the PCB contains power supply and management for the TEC element.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/gpu_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/gpu.jpg)
The ATI RV570 GPU has a smaller footprint than the high-end chips. It is made in an 80nm process and contains 330 million transistors with support for Shader Model 3.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/memory.jpg)
As memory Samsung 1.2 ns GDDR3 memory with the model number K4J52324QC-BJ12 is used, which should be good for around 833 MHz.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/sensor_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/sensor.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/card6.jpg)
Gecube uses this Fintek F75363 (F75363SG) sensor chip which at this time is not supported by ATITool 0.26. A future version will support temperature monitoring and fan control.
The card has semi-dynamic fan speeds. If you look at the second picture above you see two fans, left one with the ATI sticker, and the right one with the Gecube sticker. The Fintek F75363 SG chip can control the "Gecube" fan, the ATI fan is always running at a fixed speed.
[page=Test Setup]
Test System
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable" width="450">
<tr align="center">
<th colspan="2" scope="row" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th width="150" scope="row">CPU:</th>
<td scope="row">AMD Athlon64 FX-60 @ 2900 MHz<br />(Toledo, 2x 1024 KB Cache)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Motherboard:</th>
<td scope="row">Sapphire PC-A9RD580<br />ATI Radeon XPRESS 3200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Memory:</th>
<td scope="row">2x 1024MB G.Skill F1-4000BIU2-2GBHV CL3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Harddisk:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">WD Raptor 360GD 36 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Power Supply:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">OCZ GameXStream 700W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Software:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Windows XP SP2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Drivers:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">NVIDIA: 91.47<br />ATI: Catalyst 6.11</td>
</tr>
</table>
All video card results were obtained on this exact system with the exact same configuration.
All games were set to their highest quality setting
Three resolutions were tested per benchmark:
1024 x 768, No Anti-aliasing, No anisotropic filtering. This is a standard resolution without demanding display settings.
1280 x 1024, 2x Anti-aliasing, 8x anisotropic filtering. Common resolution for most gamer flatscreens today. A bit of eye candy turned on in the drivers.
1600 x 1200, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to a wide range of users. Very good looking driver graphics settings.
2048 x 1536, 4x Anti-aliasing, 16x anisotropic filter. Highest non-widescreen resolution available to any consumer video card. Very good looking driver graphics settings.
[page=Far Cry]
Far Cry
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry.jpg
Far Cry (http://www.farcry-thegame.com) was released in early 2004 by the new development studio Crytek. It quickly became a massive success because it was one of the first titles to take you in a beautiful 3D outdoor world. Far Cry was one of the most demanding games at its time. Even with today's video cards you can still see big differences in frame rates, especially at the higher resolutions.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/farcry_2048_1536.gif
[page=FEAR]
FEAR
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear.jpg
The first person shooter F.E.A.R (htttp://www.whatisfear.com), developed by Monolith Game Studios, was released in Fall 2005 and has a great 3D engine that uses a large number of shading and shadow effects to accurately model the game world. In addition to that it features a realistic physics engine that lets you interact with many objects in the game world. The game was voted game of the year by several publications.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/fear_2048_1536.gif
[page=Prey]
Prey
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey.jpg
Prey (http://www.prey.com) is based on a highly modified 3D engine made by id Software. This first person shooter brought a completely new way of gaming to the genre. In many levels you find yourself walking upside down or on the walls. This adds a completely new aspect to the gaming experience in this genre.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/prey_2048_1536.gif
[page=Quake 4]
Quake 4
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4.jpg
The Quake titles are among the most successful first person games. Developed by id Software, the famous game studio that brought you DOOM, you find yourself in a scifi world that is full of aliens and shocking effects. The main focus of the game is the single player story line. Quake 4 (http://www.quake4game.com) puts you on the home planet of the Strogg. In a number of missions you and your fellow marines will encounter all sorts of enemies, including some really huge aliens.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/quake4_2048_1536.gif
[page=X3]
X3
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3.jpg
X3 (http://www.egosoft.com) is a space combat/trading simulation game with beautiful graphics. The game world is gigantic and there is always something new to see. Even though the user interface is not that great, the title has found many fans that love to explore the rich content. When you are flying in your spaceship you are sometimes tempted to just stop the action to take a look at the highly detailed ships and planets.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/x3_2048_1536.gif
[page=3DMark03]
3DMark03
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03.jpg
Futuremark Corporation (http://www.futuremark.com) is the number one player in the world of synthetic benchmarking. The 3DMark series is the most popular test suite for video card testing and is used by gamers, overclockers and manufacturers alike to determine how fast their hardware is. Even though it is a few years old, 3DMark03 can easily stress today's video cards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark03_2048_1536.gif
[page=3DMark05]
3DMark05
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05.jpg
Another benchmark from Futuremark (http://www.futuremark.com) is 3DMark05 which comes with four completely new game tests that make massive use of shaders and lighting effects. 3DMark05 is a great test for modern video card architectures - in some tests you are often close to the 30 fps mark, below which your games will feel sluggish.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1024_768.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1280_1024.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_1600_1200.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/3dmark05_2048_1536.gif
[page=Power consumption]
Power consumption
Cooling modern video cards is becoming more and more difficult, especially when users are asking for quiet cooling solutions. That's why the engineers are now paying much more attention to power consumption of new video card designs.
To measure power consumption the whole system's mains power draw was measured. This means that these numbers include CPU, Memory, HDD, Video card and PSU inefficiency.
The load value was obtained by running 3DMark03 Nature at 1280x1024, 6xAA, 16xAF. This results in the highest power consumption. While the test was running, power consumption was recorded. The highest reading is listed in the following graph.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/power.gif
The Gecube X1950 Pro Champion Edition is basically a power hog because of the TEC. However, even with our overclocked FX-60 the total system peak power consumption is below 250W which means that any 400W PSU should be able to run it without problems.
[page=Overclocking]
Overclocking
The card does not use distinct 2D/3D clocks. It always runs at 574 MHz core and 682 MHz memory.
ATITool does not work on this card (yet), so we used ATITool "Scan for Artifacts" in conjunction with ATI WinClk 5.22 to find the maximum clocks manually. Actually ATITool core clock changes work, but when you try to start Find Max it will try to change the memory clock as well and crash the card...
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/GeCube/X1950Pro_Champion/images/maxclock.gif
In the end the card runs completely stable at 682 MHz Core (19 % overclock) and 816 MHz Memory (20 % overclock). Both overclocks are breathtaking, I haven't seen such overclocking potential on any video card in a stock configuration for quite a while.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The Gecube X1950 Pro FZ Cool Champion Edition costs about $280. This is a $30 premium over a regular X1950 Pro with 512 MB GDDR3.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Huge overclocking potential
Good performance
Unique TEC Cooling
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Loud fan
High power consumption
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.1</th>
<td>The Radeon X1950 Pro series is a great choice for people who do not want to spend too much money at this time, yet they want a card that can run all games at acceptable settings. In our testing we saw that the GeCube X1950 Pro could run everything we threw at it, even at 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF. So it is safe to say that this card will last you far into 2007, until it is more clear what's happening with Vista, DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0.<br />
The TEC FZ Cool cooling of Gecube's card works well, but tends to make the card a bit noisy because it uses two fans. Unfortunately only one fan is temperature controlled, the other fan is running at constant speed. Since there is no overclocking tool that works with the X1950 Pro at this time you are limited to using CCC overclocks or BIOS editing. With CCC you can pretty much max. out the available clock range which makes this a simple thing to overclock if you just want to set a clock and be done with it.<br />
The price premium of $30 over a regular 512 MB X1950 Pro that you pay for the TEC module is justified if you are willing to trade a bit more fan noise for huge overclocking potential.
</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>